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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011675">Bad Dreams</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos'>QueenPotatos</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Azure Moon Route, Dimiclaude Birthday Week (Fire Emblem), M/M, Nightmares, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), and custom/tradition, day 5 : hurt and comfort, post derdriu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:00:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,155</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011675</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>During the battle of Derdriu Claude got injured protecting Dimitri, and worried about his friend the new King of Faerghus comes to his bed side, only to discover old memories his five years of wandering in the wild with his rage as only companion had erased utterly from his mind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bad Dreams</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this is also a gift for Polo ! For no reason than being Polo. Voilà. Merci pour tes dessins.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The nights in Derdriu are hotter than the days in Fhirdiad at this time of the year, Dimitri finds out, and he would never have thought they would spend so much time here in the middle of the war – especially after how it started, and how broken he was – admiring the beautiful city that is so different, in many aspect, to the Kingdom’s architecture, and which almost got destroyed by Edelgard’s plan, by the hand of a man he used to respect and adore. It makes the visit all the more charming and unique, to know that if his eye is able to admire such wonders it owes it only to him, and <em>him</em>, on this craziest whim of his that no one, on both sides, thought was a good idea to begin with.</p>
<p>The craziest man of all lays in his bed, still unconscious a day after the end of battle, and Dimitri decided they won’t leave Derdriu until Claude opens his eyes. Who but him could have bet on him, put his absolute thrust solely on his strength and hypothetical presence, despite what Claude witnessed at Gronder field? No, really, Dimitri is concerned about Claude, a man who he used to call his friend in a past life, during a time when Edelgard wasn’t the Flame Emperor yet and hadn’t declared a total war against them, an event that burned any other moments of his life to ashes. Anything else that didn’t concern his vengeance felt irrelevant until a couple of weeks ago, and those parts of him, fragments of his memory where he experiences love and happiness, obscure feelings that have the nerve to tickle his heart at times, even in a place like this – especially <em>here</em>, in front of Claude’s room – were closer to dreams for him that moments he had truly lived.</p>
<p>Hilda salutes him when he passes by her, she lets him in.</p>
<p>Claude sleeps still.</p>
<p>“They say his days are not in danger anymore, that he’ll make it alright. He should wake up anytime now.”</p>
<p>“He should already be awake.” Dimitri has little patience for this, especially since he is the reason of Claude’s suffering, of his wound on his left side, and his heart bleeds every second that Claude’s eyes remain shut, as he could have caused yet another demise to someone he esteems, and was once dear to him.</p>
<p>(Is he, still? Dear to him? Why did he come so soon if he weren’t?)</p>
<p>Hilda huffs behind him. “You don’t know Claude this much, do you? He’s just being overdramatic again so we’ll all rush to him and worry about him; but I assure you, King Dimitri, that he is indeed quite alright, and perhaps he’s even awake as we speak, but feign to be ill to gain <em>our</em> pity, and <em>your</em> attention.” Dimitri turns to her, missing how Claude frowns at Hilda’s words of truth. “You have too much of a gentle heart, be careful, he’s so fond of those.”</p>
<p>Bewildered by her words, Dimitri watches her go and stares at the door for long minutes, trying to make sense of them, as he remembers how Hilda has never been fond of talking in codes. He must be missing something, so obvious, and after all Dimitri just got his sanity back, there must still be simple things that are confusing, dull and foggy, difficult to grasp, and it might take some time and energy, perhaps a bit of help from his friends, to see right through the mist of his heart again.</p>
<p>But one thing is sure: Claude sleeps. That much Dimitri can tell. He’s not blind, not anymore, to what’s happening around him; and so, waiting for his friend to wake up and free him from the anguish his condition cast upon him, Dimitri takes a seat. He watches Claude for Goddess Sothis only knows how long and follows Claude – or so he thought – to the imaginary world of dreams.</p>
<p>And if Claude indeed sleeps, Dimitri hopes he’s in a place more pleasant than the burning ground of Gronder field, where ashes burn his bare feet as he walks on ambers and smoke masks his already damaged sight. The worse is the smell, always, of burnt corpses; they smell like grilled chicken and the blood is so abundant it penetrates his nostril and mouth, giving his saliva a taste of iron. Men cry, women too, perhaps a bit braver. Dimitri blinks and suddenly he’s fourteen again and Glenn stands before him, protecting him from the lances, the blades and fire, and his blood slips on his horrified face when he’s sliced in two.</p>
<p>“No!!” He screams.</p>
<p>Arms envelop his face, force him to close his eyes and everything becomes dark, he sees nothing, hear nothing but a voice, tender in his ear. “Breathe in, Dimitri, breathe in and out. I’m here. You’re fine.”</p>
<p>When he opens his eyes he’s not in Duscur anymore, nor in an battlefield a couple of years later – even if some might say a bed can be a battlefield on its own kind, but for a different type of battles – but in a room in Garreg Mach Monastery, and for a second he thinks he’s on his bed except it’s bigger, way bigger and there are books shattered everywhere.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Someone caresses his hair, and drops a kiss on his forehead. “Did you have a bad dream again?”</p>
<p>“It’s called a nightmare, Claude.”</p>
<p>Claude? What is he doing here? No, what is Dimitri doing in <em>his</em> room?</p>
<p>“Not where I come from.” He kisses him on the lips, and Dimitri kisses back.</p>
<p>(…<em>He kisses back?)</em></p>
<p>“Bad dreams can be stored away. Do you remember what your totem looks like? The one you chose the other night.”</p>
<p>He does. It’s him, it’s Claude.</p>
<p>“I do.” And somehow he knows this is not a dream anymore but a bittersweet memory of a time he thought was lost forever, blown away by rage and war, a time when he had found someone to be a carefree young boy with, another Prince bind by fate and responsibilities, and he remembers now how they used to escape from it by staying on this bed for hours, their limbs tangled, fingers entwined and lips wet.</p>
<p>“Good. Think about it.” Always, he always does. “It’ll take the demons away. Close your eyes, Dimitri.”</p>
<p>He obeys. The bad dream goes away.</p>
<p>The smell of ashes doesn’t bother him anymore.</p>
<p>“Well done Dimitri.”</p>
<p>He opens his eye. They are back at Gronder Field. Claude stands in front of him, wearing clothes Dimitri didn’t know he owned, ones of the leader of the Leicester Alliance. The braid he loved so much is gone. “You did it. I took the bad dream away.”</p>
<p>And only then does Dimitri notice the blood on his stomach, the one running down his chin from lips he used to love in a past life, used to kiss until it hurt, until daybreak even when Claude would let him.</p>
<p>Claude falls on his knees. “No.” He breathes, it cannot be, it is not what happened, Claude survived Gronder field, and he’ll survive the battle of Derdriu as well. “No!” He yells, when life escapes from his emerald eyes, and they shine no more.</p>
<p>“No!”</p>
<p>Dimitri wakes up his head on Claude’s lap and a hand caressing his hair. He breathes again. Claude is awake. Claude is alive. The rest, the disturbing truth – was it a dream? A repressed memory? The tenderness he felt on Claude’s bed, against his lips? – can wait, it will.</p>
<p>“Did you have a bad dream again?”</p>
<p>Dimitri holds his breath. “Yes.” A nightmare, but it’s not how they call them, where Claude comes from.</p>
<p>“When I was very young there’s a story my mother used to tell me, when I had some. Care to listen, Your Kingliness?”</p>
<p>His joyful voice and the way he mocks his title remind him of where they are – on Claude’s bed, once again – and their intimate posture, how his own arm curls around Claude’s waist, as if he were afraid he’d leave, far, without him, in a place where he couldn’t follow. Dimitri straightens his back and drops his arm, he feels his cheeks redden, and Claude chooses not to point it out.</p>
<p>“I’m all ears.” Dimitri says, politely, because he fears he knows perhaps half the story, and wonders how he could.</p>
<p>“Where I come from, bad dreams are caused by small demons, that enter through your ears and eat your brain when you sleep. To get rid of them, you need to think of something that soothe you and give you happiness, really hard, until the good feelings are strong enough to capture the demons and force them out of your skull. It can be anything. An object, a place-“</p>
<p>“A person.” Dimitri cuts him.</p>
<p>Claude stares at him for a second too long. His words surprised him, and somehow Dimitri can’t tell if it’s a good or bad omen. “Yes, it can be someone. Or a fond memory. Anything, as long as your feelings are strong enough to fight the demons.” And Claude speaks as if he believed in this children’s fairytale when they both know it can’t be true, none of it; but these are the words Dimitri needs to hear, more than anything. “Whatever you choose is your totem. Can you visualise it?”</p>
<p>Dimitri laughs, he stares at Claude. “Quite well.”</p>
<p>“Good. Then close your eye.”</p>
<p>He does.</p>
<p>Claude’s window is opened and overlooks one of the most animated squares of Derdriu; most of the population is shopping at the market, the noise from the city, alive, reaches his ears. Yet it’s so easy to imagine Claude, his mischievous smile, his bright green eyes that used to follow him wherever he went during their academy days, until Dimitri got tired of being tracked and he comforted Claude, because if he was a spy or anything of the sort, they should battle here and now, and not wait anymore second. And he remembered how Claude smiled and looked to the side, his cheeks burning with feelings he would share with Dimitri a second later, a blush that would soon reach his own face when Claude would leave him with a kiss.</p>
<p>He still remembers his breath against his skin as his lips left his. He feels it even now, no, how can it be, how can it be so real when a day ago all these memories were locked in a part of his head that he has lost access to?</p>
<p>Hair tickles his forehead. Claude is close. His face is so close; is he going to kiss him?</p>
<p>Dimitri opens his eye just to check if his guess was true; he regrets, because Claude withdraws, his lips escape from his reach.</p>
<p>“Did it work?” Claude asks, a bit quickly, as to elude a problem, to bring his attention on something else than their prior proximity, that he so easily dismisses.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell you tomorrow.” After all, Dimitri doesn’t plan on dreaming all day.</p>
<p>“Will you still be here tomorrow?”</p>
<p>Now that Claude is awake, and visibly fine, there’s no reason for them to delay their departure anymore, and with how hasty he has been at the beginning of the war to march on Embarr when they shouldn’t have, Dimitri cannot see how he could justify another night lost to idle ballads in this most enjoyable city despite the jewels it has to offer, even if the one that shines the most sits in front of him and begs for his attention.</p>
<p>But Dimitri is a King, it has some advantages. “If I want to, we will.” His desires are orders, his will, absolute.</p>
<p>“Do you want to stay?” Claude leans in again, a bit further than what Dimitri has felt earlier still. His eyes, goddess; how could he forget how beautiful they are, and how intensely he used to stare a him, as if he were worth all the sapphires in the world?</p>
<p>He wants to stay. He wants to stay with Claude, even if it’s just for a day more. “Perhaps.” But he’s scared to voice what his heart desires. Why is Claude behaving this way? Why did he tell him about the totem and the bad dreams, if he already told Dimitri in the past? Why did he act as if it was the first time? Is it all in Dimitri’s head? Did five years of wandering alone made him mad to the point of creating fake memories?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t make sense. His imagination isn’t wild enough to have come up with something so perfect. He cannot have invented how Claude’s lips taste, he’s sure of it.</p>
<p>And before he realizes Claude’s nose almost touches his, his eyes are wild, mesmerized, and the joyful and carefreeness is gone; instead there’s pure wonderment, and for once it is him that looks like he’s unsettled, looking for something, for his words. His lips part. He sighs.</p>
<p>Dimitri feels the breath on his skin.</p>
<p>“I…For a second I thought…I thought that you…” Claude says, his eyes never leaving his, and Dimitri doesn’t recognize this feeling he sees in them, is it shock? Surprise? Is he overwhelmed, or simply happy? He cannot tell, because Claude is bare, that’s what he is truly, and it’s a sight even he hasn’t seen often.</p>
<p>What did he mean then? He thought, perhaps, that he was dead, this is the most reasonable path his thoughts should take, because after all he had been, dead, for the rest of the world and for five long years; and it is then clear why Claude would act as if their time at Garreg Mach meant nothing, because Dimitri <em>has been dead</em> and then he met him at Gronder field, but it was not <em>his</em> Dimitri. It was a ghost, not a man, a beast perhaps at best, but he was not the one he used to hold in his arms at night.</p>
<p>But he’s back now, he’s back.</p>
<p>He’s back from the dead, and it took them a while, but his memories came back as well.</p>
<p>Dimitri nuzzles his cheek, he feels Claude sighing again. “Dimitri.” He murmurs, and he spoke with the same tenderness he used back in their academy days and if they want they could come back to the dorms in Claude’s messy room, but only for a moment, a minute, or an hour if time would be kind enough for their tired souls. They could be boys again instead of Kings, and Claude would kiss him again, and Dimitri would recognize the taste of his lips.</p>
<p>They’re a centimetre only apart from bliss. Claude closed his eyes long ago, he waits, Dimitri’s face burns with life and something else he doesn’t recognize, his lips are opened and brush on Claude’s.</p>
<p>“He should be awake by now.” A man speaks on the other side of the door.</p>
<p>His lips tremble, his hands shake, and only now does he realize Claude has been holding his the whole time.</p>
<p>“Yeah, let’s find out.”</p>
<p>Hilda opens the door just before they could kiss. They part on the spot, before Lorenz could witness the unmistakable proof of their affection, and in the room he’s the only one who doesn’t blush.</p>
<p>“Ah, Claude, I’m glad you seem well. I came to give you my regards, as I was not so long ago in a dire situation myself after your friend here attacked the bridge of Myrddin. Prince Dimitri.”</p>
<p>“It’s King.” Dimitri replies harshly. He should go, the situation requires it, he has no business with the rest of the Alliance and its governance, and it’s so tempting to look back at Claude again, so risky too, as his lips demand to be honoured with his.</p>
<p>“Oh.” Lorenz looks surprised, the news mustn’t have reach his ears. “I’m sorry to have mistitled you, your Majesty.”</p>
<p>“I shall leave you and seek for my men.” Dimitri stands up, but Claude’s hand drags him back on the sheet with him and thanks to the inertia of his fall, Claude captures his lips in a long kiss, needy and intense, before he eventually lets him go.</p>
<p>“Promise me you’ll come back.” He demands, before kissing him again. “Promise me.”</p>
<p>Dimitri replies with his mouth on his, closing the debate forever, as his tongue runs on Claude’s lower lip and oh, does it feel good to finally taste them after all this time, after five long years, during which he had no idea of what he was missing, when Claude must have dwelled on what he thought he had lost forever.</p>
<p>As Dimitri gets out of the room he doesn’t even see the flabbergasted looks on Hilda’s and Lorenz’s faces, he takes the same corridor he will walk by a couple of hours later to honour his promise, and make up for all the lost time.</p>
<p>He joins him once again they have had dinner with their respective crew and intends to stay part of the night, if not more. He owes it to Claude. Claude saved him.</p>
<p>“What? No! <em>You</em> saved me.” Claude smiles again, and even if his spleen still hurts, the bleeding has stopped, he’s out of danger, truly, “If it weren’t for you I would have been dead. You were my only suitable option, and by that I mean the only one where I could get out of this battle alive without admitting defeat.”</p>
<p>“But you got hurt, because of me.”</p>
<p>“Dimitri, look at me.” Claude raises his chin with his forefinger, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You saved me. Not only me, but the Alliance. You saved the Kingdom as well. So stop with the puppy face, will you? We’re not students anymore. This is not a face suitable for a King. It’s not the face of <em>my</em> King.”</p>
<p>“…Claude…I…” He doesn’t know what to say but it seems he doesn’t have to. Claude once more kisses him as if they have never been apart, as if those five years have been nothing but a bad dream, as if he forgave everything Dimitri has done during this time - the murders, the butcheries - and forgave him to have forgotten such important memories. Claude forgives.</p>
<p>“How did you know I would come to your rescue?”</p>
<p>“Easy, I know you.” Another kiss, short this time. “I trust you.”</p>
<p>“But you sent your messenger before you could have possibly known about the aftermath of the battle of Fhirdiad. We could have lost, and never come.”</p>
<p>“This one is easy as well.” A kiss on the birth of his nose. “I had faith in you.”</p>
<p>Dimitri’s chest swells with pride and joy and he kisses Claude again, gently because of his wound, until daybreak, and this time, no one dared to interrupt their so important ‘war meeting’, the longest that has ever been.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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